Which USA City is Great to Live in?
arun on Oct 31 2007 at 3:57 pm | Filed under: family diary | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
Above are pictures of us at a lodge just north of Seattle in the USA. For regular visitors or people who know us you might realise that is a long way from home as we currently live in Byron Bay, Australia.
Our recent and relatively short trip to the USA explains why October has been a slow month for this blog… in fact during our travels it has been kept alive by all the great comments people have and continue leaving, so thank you to all of you that have been posting your thoughts!!!.
We just got back home and among other things I intend to pay more attention to this blog again with a few new book reviews, articles and interviews in the pipeline… so be sure to come back regularly.
But a request for those of you with some US experience… as part of our organic home business, which now involves more people in the US than in Australia we are planning an extended trip to the States.
Still working on and considering lots of options, so it could be anywhere as short as a two month stint or maybe more – but we wanted to ask where are some great places to live in the USA?
Some of our criteria include a place that is:
- relatively alternative: ideally a lively unschooling community, but even just communities of people who are open to alternative ideas and conscious living whether it be environmentally, spiritually or politically. We don’t have to agree but we enjoy being around people who are questioning the mainstream and living conscious lives
- an outdoor lifestyle possible: so not raining all the time for example
- not ridiculously expensive: So far some of the places we have looked at that seem to meet the above criteria are extremely expensive places to live…
So please let us know your thoughts and experiences…
Welcome Home!
Can’t wait to catch up and hear all about your trip!
give us a ring when you’re ready
Hey Arun– I’m glad you’re back. I’ve been keeping an eye on this blog for awhile and find it to be REALLY inspiring. I figured you were just busy with life!
I have to say, I’ve never lived anywhere else, but I do find my home of Northeast Tennessee to be quite AWESOME. I’ve been from the Carribean to the UK and never found anywhere I wanted to live more than here. The mountains are amazing (plenty of hiking, lakes, rivers), it’s not expensive tax-wise, not touristy. I just met with a homeschool/unschool group today and felt a sense of belonging for the first time since I became a mother.
So my vote is… Johnson City, Tennessee. Just my two cents
While I love Johnson City for sure and will live nowhere else, I really think your criteria is even better met by Asheville NC. Yep. Asheville for sure.
And while you’re in Asheville, come on over to Jonesborough/Johnson City and hang with some of us crazy unschoolers.:)
Oh, and I should add that one of the reasons we chose this area, is you don’t NEED alternative type communities in order to BE alternative because agriculture is alive here and there is land galore if you want to get away from environmentally unfriendly living.
It’s really inexpensive still too….. I can have Bleu email you some listings if you think you’d like to have a U.S. home.:)
Yeah, totally, what Ren said. I was going to add that I saw the folks on the AlwaysUnschooled list wanting you to go around western North Carolina, and I was thinking, Hey, how do I draw a big circle on the map around Northeast Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia, and then show that to you? Ah, well, you get the idea
Albuquerque is lovely. Good and alternative. Dry enough to appeal to the drought-ridden from NSW. Good unschooling community. Not terribly expensive. A big city though. A long way from where you are now, isolation wise. But easy, access to amazing hiking and outdoors stuff, and it doesn’t light quite as frequently as the outback in Oz seems to.
If I were going to pick places I wanted to move back to in the U.S. it would be either the Southwest, Albuquerque specifically, or the Northwest, but the Northwest is far more expensive.
1st place that comes to mind for me is Colorado–a very crunchy state and beautiful, although I have been born and raised in California myself
I live in Oklahoma. This state has very liberal aws eguarding homeschooling, prtty much anythign goes. Which has helped a fairly large unschooling community to flourish here. We’re in the center of the country, almost. The weather is gorgeous. Warm summers, beautiful falls, sparkling winters, and green springs. Also the cost of living here is fairly low.
Colorado is wonderful - 310 days of sun a year, beautiful mountains nearby, mostly progressive people (at least in the Boulder County area and some mountain areas). No beach though!
To this (now) Southern gal, Albuquerque and just about anywhere in CO seem very expensive compared to here. Even Asheville, which we consider expensive, seems cheap by comparison.
I live in GA now but have lived all over the Northeast and have spent lots of summers in N.C. I agree that Asheville fits your needs. I wish that we weren’t tied to a farm and could move there.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
With visas and other complications we are now looking at two short trips to the US, so keeping things relatively simple. But we are planning some extended house swaps in the coming years, so BIG thanks for the tips!!
Hi Arun
reading your blog backwards , I just found it …
We can offer you our house in Sunnyvale CA , for up to 5 weeks
in Jan - Feb . In return you will only need to walk/feed the dogs.
It is an hour drive from Berkeley which is the alternative area
you are looking for I guess. If it is interesting in anyway you can
email me: dolitg@gmail.com